Ballots for the 2023 Idaho’s Best are in, and it looks to be a phenomenal success. The businesses and attractions that were up for voting in their respective categories were nominated by Idaho residents in January and February. Those that received enough nominations earned their spots on the ballot.

Tens of thousands of votes were cast to show support for businesses and attractions in our community. We were overwhelmed with the enthusiastic response and can’t wait to share the finalists of each category.

What Happens Now

We want the Idaho’s Best Awards to be as fair as possible, so our team is working hard to calculate the results and verify the findings. We use a scoring system that relies on a combination of votes and reviews from Google and Yelp.

Count Ballots

Who had the most votes? Other contests are prone to spamming, duplicate votes, or cheating. Idaho’s Best only counts unique votes for each category. We even use text message verification for each ballot. While technology makes counting easy, we still need to verify the results.

Check with the BBB

Idaho’s Best has partnered with the Better Business Bureau to certify our finalists. The top vote-getters must also not have a negative grade with the BBB in order to become a finalist (no rating is still okay). Their rating system utilizes a grading scale just like you used in school, going from an A+ down to an F, graded on 17 different factors. This rating represents a business’s overall trustworthiness and their good-faith efforts to address customer concerns.

Count Reviews

Idaho’s Best isn’t like most “Best of” contests, which simply count votes. We realize that the community has already been showing their support for the “best” by leaving reviews all year long, so we’re going to count every 5-star review published on Google and Yelp within the last 12 months.

Calculate Score

While votes and reviews signify great work in the last year, overall ratings on Google and Yelp tell us how nominees have done long term. The mean rating from these platforms will be used in conjunction with 5-star reviews and votes to determine the winners.

Number of Votes + Number of 5-star Reviews + Average Rating = Score

Announce Winners

Winners will be announced at the Idaho’s Best Awards Ceremony on April 18 + 19, 2023. Finalists will be invited to purchase tickets for the celebration. The banquet includes a red carpet entrance, photos, and other special prizes and opportunities.

Thank You

We’re grateful to everyone for the support and participation in this year’s Idaho’s Best awards. It’s been a lot of fun, and we’re already looking forward to next year’s contest!